12 responses to “A Billion Dollar Presidential Campaign?”

It’s unfortunate that it’s come down to this, but it is what it is. Elections are won or lost in the media. I worked at a broadcasting company for several years, it is truly unbelievable what 30sec of airtime will cost in a prime time slot. You could buy the cheap spots, but who’s going to be listening in the middle of the night?

Obama will need the funding if he’s going to compete with the corporate GOP runner, no matter who that will be.

Yes, sponsors buy blocks of ad time. Anymore I think these may be placed randomly by computer, not sure. When ‘time’ is purchased they’re guaranteed a certain amount prime time, which is a very small percentage of their purchase. The remainder is scattered across the day and night divided by percentage of best to worst airtime. Often another salesperson who has more clout will come in with a late sell and bump existing commercials to later time slots. This can end up with spots being lumped together. It’s not the sponsors fault, that’s not (usually) how they purchased, or intended it.

An interesting story about the power of one ad at the right time. Hatman Jack’s in Wichita purchased 1 weekly ad. It ran at a specific time on Saturday morning. I was told that he had this time spot for a long time, may still have it for all I know (think it might have been on KEYN?). When Luciano Pavarotti was in Wichita on his way somewhere in town and he heard Hatman Jack’s spot on the radio. He had his driver take him there and the Hatman sold Luciano Pavarotti a hat. There was something about this on the news at the time. But this came about because of 1 ad placed at the proper time. These placings are usually not cheap and can be sold out from under you by a higher bid. That’s the way it is in broadcasting.

The solution is quite simple, and I can save you all considerable money. I will run for president for only $333.33 million. That’s right, today only, you can get a presidential candidate for the amazing price of only $333.33 million, one third of the normal cost from some of my competitors!

That’s right! Save money on a presidential candidate NOW and get a free VP candidate along with it!

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(Fine print disclaimer: There is no guarantee that I will actually WIN the presidency, or even campaign, but Rufus is a very friendly dog and there is a CHANCE that we could pull it off. After all, would you vote for the GOP ticket of Trump/Bachmann? At least MY dog is friendly.)

I still remember that line as being a trait to look for in a president.

Of course, the irony to that statement was that George W. Bush professed to be a non-drinker due to his conversion to Jesus from his days as a drinker,

So, now it is always a person who is down to earth, homespun, common sense —– yeah, I like those traits also but in my president, I want someone who is intelligent enough to know when to hit the panic button and when not to hit the panic button.

And to keep those bumper sticker soundbite remedies to real problems on the campaign trail and not to be putting one of those bumper stickers on that red phone to be answered at 3 a.m.